For this class, we explored how animation isn’t only about making things move, but also about making the audience believe. Fundamental acting principles are what help give the element a personality.
The quote “Acting is reacting” by Stella Adler applies perfectly to animation. A character begins to be believable when they respond to their circumstances, not because of their rig or motion. When a character’s objective (what they want) clashes with obstacles (what blocks them), genuine emotion emerges.
I found the Iceberg Theory fascinating since I would’ve never thought of it that way. The poses and the movements we see are only 10% of everything; the remaining 90% is beneath the surface: background stories, personality quirks, relationship dynamics, and internal conflicts.
The breathing principle allows the character to process the information, to pause and ‘think’.
Every animated action should answer three questions:
- What is the character doing?
- Why are they doing it (thought, feeling, reason)?
- How does it reveal their goal or obstacle?
Without these answers, movement becomes generic. With them, even simple actions become storytelling opportunities.
For the rest of the class, we reviewed our juice boxes and golden poses.
I noticed that since I haven’t rigged before, I struggle to understand how they work. I stayed after class to work on my golden pose with Mariana and Ting, and the outcome was really positive.
And since our next assignment is to bring a juice box to life, I first had to fix my juice boxes. I changed the reference to another rig, animating it from scratch again, not only to improve the animation but also to have some extra practice. As a helpful resource and Ting’s recommendation, I filmed my own reference well to capture timing better.